Prayers

It's a nasty, stormy night tonight. When I was rocking MG, it started pouring rain, lightning and thundering. My little drama queen started doing her fake shiver and went into a five minute explanation on why thunder scares her! Now, I know thunder really does worry her a little, but she can put on a pretty impressive show! I asked her if she wanted to pray and ask Jesus to help her not be scared. I'm really trying to make it a point to pray in front of MG and show her that we can go to God with anything. I think it's working! After I prayed for her, she calmed down and snuggled up with me. Then she did the best thing ever...she said "Momma, want me to pray that you won't be afraid of the thunder?". And she did! Then she prayed that Jesus wouldn't be afraid of the thunder, either! The best part is that she laid right down and went to sleep, never moved during any of the storm. She hasn't gone to sleep that easy in forever!

Jesus in our Hearts

Tonight as we were rocking, after prayers, I asked Molly Grace where Jesus lives. Very matter of factly, she replied "in my heart". She then wanted to know if Jesus lives in my heart, too. "Yes He does" was my response. She looked at me with the sweetest fact and very sincerely said "can I feel Him" and put her hand on my heart.

I love her sweet innocence and her love for Jesus! I hope she always knows that Jesus is in her heart!

Pure Joy

This morning at Josh's Upward Basketball game, MG was dancing and spinning around, squealing and having a wonderful time.

There was a very sweet old lady in a wheelchair sitting close by. I noticed her watching MG with a smile on her face the whole time.

As we were walking off when the game was over, she motioned me over to her. "I have seen pure joy," she said. "She is just so joyful."

My heart was full at that moment, and still is. As parents, we hope that our children are happy. For someone else to see the joy radiating out of my baby girl is proof enough for me!

She IS joy!

3 Year Check-Up

MG had her 3 year old well visit today. We saw the new pediatrician that is in the office and just loved her! Well, I loved her. MG doesn't really love anyone that isn't family! Ha! She got a really good check-up. Everything is perfect! She is 3'3.75" (95th%) and weights 34 lbs (90th%). She's always been in the 90th% for height, but she really shot up in the weight percentile! I'm almost positive it's the first time she's been above the 50th%! They took her blood pressure for the first time and it was great. Her ears are both clear and tubes are in (always nice to hear!). Temp was normal. Heart sounded good. We are going to go to the hospital next week and get some blood drawn to see if she has a milk or soy allergy. I had been thinking for awhile maybe that was the cause of her ear infections. She seemed to think it was a pretty good chance. My plan was to cut all dairy and see if it worked! Her way is much easier! Before we left they gave her a flu shot in her leg. She layed up there like a champ, but when they stuck that needle in, she screamed like I haven't hear her scream in a long time! She only cried a minute, though. Later on the way home she said (out of the blue), "I don't want them to get my leg again...cuz it hurts!" She was pretty mad at them! We are going to start weaning her from sucking her fingers. The ped. didn't really have any good suggestions that I hadn't already thought of or read about. I think we're going to try the positive reinforcement way first. We're starting small. I made a Chuck E. Cheese picture with 8 squares in it. If we catch her not sucking them 8 times this weekend, she gets to go to Chuck E Cheese. Eventually I guess I will move to a sticker each day. That may take awhile, though. I don't see this going well at all! Molly Grace does what Molly Grace wants...and she wants to suck those fingers! ha!

My child has kept us laughing all night! We had to have a dance party in the living room. Her Mamaw gave her a bday card that sings part of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"...well now she can sing along with it! It's so funny. Then she came out of the bathroom completely naked, ran to my bed and started jumping up and down singing "Nekkid girl...I'm a nekkid girl"!! I'm a little concerned that she will be either a stripper or a nudist when she grows up! Ha! We were watching a funny skit on Mad Tv and she started mocking it...cracked me up!

Happy Party Day

Today was MG's party! I struggled with whether or not to invite some of her little friends, but ultimately decided to make it only family. I'm glad I did. She had a great time with all of her cousins and it was nice to visit with family. The theme was, of course, Disney Princesses. She went back and forth a lot and finally decided she wanted all of them at her party!

We had her party at the church again. You just can't beat it. There's plenty of room for the kids to run. They can play basketball and there are 2 blow up bounce houses. It was perfect. The cousins played their little hearts out in the jumpers. We opened presents next. MG is so spirited and full of personality, but she does NOT like the spotlight unless we're at home! She hated everyone sitting around and watching just her! It was all I could do to get her to open her gifts! She got some fun stuff, though.

We went with a cupcake cake this year. It was so simple and cute, I will never do a cake again! MG ate her weight in icing!

MG had one request that she was adamant about...she had to have a "pin-yaya"! All I could find was a pull-string one, but she insisted on hitting it, so we did! I think it's safe to say that was her favorite part! The funniest part was when all the other kids were scooping candy up as fast as they could, she was so delicately choosing one piece at a time and picking it up!

Luckily we moved things along pretty quickly. My plan was to have plenty of time at the end for the kids to just play. But MG got sick! She started her new antibiotic last night (that's a totally different post!) and it's really strong. It makes her sick everytime and this is the strongest dosage she's ever been on. I debated not starting it until after the party, but really wanted to go ahead and get it in her system. Anyway, she started bawling and yelling that her head hurt. She was pitiful and it didn't help that she hadn't had a nap. So we rushed to clean up and get her home.

We are so blessed to have such great family. They all made her day so special.

Her Grandma, Auntie, Amber (Mamer), Aunt Pat, Uncle Big, Matt and Leigha came all the way from MO!

Her Mamaw, Papaw, Uncle Kenny, Aunt Manda, Eli and Maddie came from 2 hours away.

And of course her Granny, Pap, Mamie, Jon-Jon, Josh, Caleb and Ms. Melanie were there, too.

I still can't believe my girl is 3 years old! Time really flies by.

Birthday Interview - 3 Years Old

I saw this idea on Pinterest and fell in love with it! It took me 2 nights to get all the questions answered! I loved her answers!

1. How old are you? 3

2. What is your favorite toy? The cupcakes (she got a set of wooden cupcakes for her bday. She had just opened them before I asked her this question! If I had to answer, I say her favorite is play-doh, it's what she plays 90% of the time at home!)

3. What is your favorite thing to eat? Chicken Noodles

4. What is your favorite TV show? Bo on the Go

5. What is your favorite movie? “Alice” aka Alice in Wonderland

6. What is your favorite game? Princess Candyland

7. What is your favorite animal? Horse

8. What is your favorite color? Pink

9. What is your favorite song? Jingle Bells

10. What is your favorite book? The Lion Book

11. Who is your best friend? Momma

12. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Slide down…my swingset

13. What is your favorite drink? Apple juice

14. What is your favorite outfit? Little Mermaid dress

15. What do you like to sleep with at night? My sparkle thing (a piece of pink sequined elastic that she fell in love with and convinced Granny to buy her at Walmart one day. She sleeps with it in her hand every single night!)

16. Where is your favorite place to go? Chuck E. Cheese

17. What do you want to be when you grow up? Little Mermaid

18. What makes you happy? My dollhouse

19. What is your favorite thing to do with momma? Hug and Read

20. What is your favorite thing to do with daddy? Play my puppy dog game (LeapPad2 game)

Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013

Happy New Year! We spent a fabulous night at home - just where I wanted to be. We cooked burgers, watching movies, played Princess Memory, made stuff with play-doh, had balloon fights and laughed...a lot! I'm pretty sure it was my favorite New Years ever! My kid is so much fun. And thanks to the steroid she's on, she was able to stay up all night! We did all finally crash at 11:30. I still can't believe we got so close and didn't push through until midnight, but this momma was tired!

2012 was a good year. I got to be MG's mom and Jamey's wife...what more could I want? We took several small trips as a family. Spent lots of weekends at the lake. My baby turned into a little girl. We stayed in the same house and jobs are completely OK with that! We lost our sweet Cooper, but gained our psychotic and cute Daisy. We found our church home and the most amazing Life Group. MG learned to pray and started loving Sunday School and asking to go to church. Nothing spectacular, but still fabulous in my eyes!

So what do I want for 2013?

I want to be healthier. I want to start eating better and taking care of this body that the Lord has blessed me with. He gave me a healthy body and I have abused it. I will eat better and exercise. I won't diet - I will become healthy. My goal is not to be skinny, it's to feel good.

I want to be more patient. It's no secret that I'm not the most patient person. I tend to lose my temper pretty easily. I can't change it on my own, but I can commit to pray about it and let God change my heart.

I want to spend more quiet time praying and reading my Bible. My relationship with Christ hasn't been first in my life. But in 2013 it will be. And I know that because of that, I will be a better wife, mother, teacher and person.

I will be a better wife. I will be more supportive and loving. I will pray for my husband and pray for my marriage. It's so hard for me not to put MG first. But this year I will make more time for dates, I will hold my sweet husband's hand more often, I will put away the computer and talk to him and listen more. I will be who he needs me to be.

Basically, I am re-prioritizing my life. #1 God #2 Marriage #3 MG #4 Everything else

Happy New Year from the Princess!

Here We Go Again With The Ear Troubles

MG has an ear infection...again. Most likely it's MRSA...again. I am absolutely at my wits end. Don't get me wrong, I am so grateful that it's not leukemia or something fatal that we're facing. I really am. BUT, I am so sick of this. My poor baby has been sick since a few months old. She hasn't been able to hear for 3 years. She can't talk plainly because she can't hear. She can't sleep because her ears hurt. She can't keep her fingers out of her ear because the MRSA makes it itch so badly. Her little ear lobe is raw and the skin is peeling off from a reaction to the drainage (we think) and from scratching it.

I am literally sick at my stomach over this. She's not a full month out of her last surgery and already another infection. I knew it was coming, I probably should've taken her in sooner. She's been digging at her ear for a couple weeks, but she never complained and it never drained. Until Sunday. I was rocking her Sunday and the smell was awful. We went in first thing Monday morning and sure enough, it's horribly infected. She cultured it and we'll know in a week if it actually is MRSA, but she was pretty positive it is. She's on a steroid for the inflammation (hello crazy, wild, steroid-hyped child!!), eye drops for her ears that are effective against MRSA and a cream for her poor outer ear.

Waiting is the worst. If it is MRSA, I feel like we're wasting precious time just waiting on results. Not that there's anything we can do, we have to wait, it takes time for the results. I know that, I just don't like it!

I have spent all day today googling, reading, asking and researching all I can on fighting MRSA naturally with essential oils. MRSA is caused by over-use of antibiotics. My poor child is the poster child for over-use of antibiotics! Her Walgreens prescription history is longer than mine! Seriously!

I have found several good routes to try. But researching was the easy part. The hard part comes with deciding what path to take. I'm so torn. Do I continue with doctors and their drugs? Do I take her to a larger children's hospital for their opinions? I mean the Lord gave man the knowledge to create these drugs for our benefit. He called people to be doctors to help. Or do I turn to the natural remedies from our Earth that God created? He made the plants and knew their healing powers. Grrrr...being a mom is so hard! I just want what is best for my child. I just want her well.

So what have I decided?? Here's what I decided to do...PRAY! I won't know the results until Friday at the earliest. So, I am going to continue with what the dr. prescribed until then and I'm going to pray. Every single day, every time I think of it (which is a lot!) I'm going to stop and pray for guidance. I will not take this into my own hands, I will listen and follow God's lead. I've learned from past experiences that taking things into my own hands does not work out too well!!